Death and Roses
by CKthePhantomess
Summary: When Pegasus makes a wish that things had turned out differently, he is thrown back and forth between events in the past and what is supposed to be the present. Except that what he thought was real keeps changing....and is Cyndia actually dead?
1. Stem

CK: Welcome, welcome, one and all! This is my story 'Death and Roses', and I hope you all like it. This goes on for a few chapters, but not more than four, I think. I'm not sure yet. Anyways, read and review, and be careful, because some of it may be confusing. It's very Twilight-Zone, in a sense.

Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh, the Great Gatsby, the Yankees, the movie 'Poltergeist', the funeral rites mentioned, or Petshop of Horrors, from which I borrowed the basic idea for this story (I didn't completely rip it off though, a lot of this is my own creation). I also do not own the word 'farglesnot', which belongs to my friend Akira.

Death and Roses

"'I wouldn't ask too much of her,' I ventured. 'You can't repeat the past.'

'Can't repeat the past?' he cried incredulously. 'Why of course you can!'

He looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his hand.

'I'm going to fix everything just the way it was before,'....."

-The Great Gatsby

It was a cold December morning as a small group of people gathered together at the cemetery, surrounding one grave out of the thousands that lined the grass. A priest stood by the headstone, reading to those around him, in an attempt to comfort them at a time of sorrow. As he read a passage to the cluster of people, some sobbed openly, while others remained deathly silent.

"Do not stand at my grave and weep

I am not there

I do not sleep

I am a thousand winds that blow

I am the diamond glints of snow

Do not stand at my grave and cry

I am not there

I did not die."

A coffin was lowered slowly into the ground, as the mourners surrounding the grave took flowers and tossed them into the grave. When the coffin finally rested in the earth, the priest closed his Bible, and the mourners began to make their way away from the tomb. Some lingered longer than others, trying to grasp their loss, but eventually they all left until the only person remaining was a seventeen year-old boy, standing by the gravestone numbly.

He ran his fingers over her name etched into the marble headstone, feeling her name written eternally onto the slab of stone. He then traced the years of her birth and death, his fingers finally stopping when he reached a rose carved into the marble. He murmured the words written there under his breath. "Beloved daughter, beloved sister, beloved friend." He leaned his forehead against the gravestone, and said quietly to a passing ghost, "I'll bring you back.....I promise..................................I'll do anything for you, anything............" And with that, he began to weep.

Seven years later..............................

It was sunset on an autumn day, and a cool breeze drifted lazily around a small town on the west coast of California. A small area, dedicated to a farmer's market and craft stores, smelled faintly of apples as people strolled through, spending their evening in rural perfection. The leaves on the trees had turned beautiful shades of red and gold, and the chill was only slight, just enough that you needed to wear a jacket.

Off towards the side stood a man, dressed in a worn flannel shirt, smoking a cigar and surveying those that passed him by. He said nothing, but just continued his watch in such a way that would make some people uneasy. He seemed to be in his late fifties or early sixties, and his well-worn hands spoke of someone who had many stories to tell but not many people to tell them to. He carried a small pouch in his left hand, while his right hand held a small basket, filled with smooth, polished stones.

At one of the farmers' booths stood another figure, this one much younger. His silver hair had been tied back and hidden underneath a hat, so that he would stand out as little as possible. He wore a thick black coat that went down to his knees, where black trousers ran down to his ankles. As he paid for a bottle of sparkling apple cider, he unconsciously moved his hand towards his hat, which he lowered so as to partially cover his face. As he walked away with his purchase, he kept his eyes focused on the ground beneath him, not so much as glancing at the other passers-by.

Pegasus J. Crawford had come here to escape for the day. He had to get away from his island, at least for an afternoon. What had once been his kingdom was becoming his prison. As beautiful as it was, staying in the same place was going to drive him insane.

....well, more insane than he already was, anyhow.

Kemo and Croquet had gotten nervous for the last few days. After all of these years, they were very aware of when Pegasus was experiencing one of his "moods". Unfortunately, even after all of these years, they still had no subtlety or tact. Constantly asking Pegasus if he was alright did absolutely nothing, it just annoyed him. He just wanted to be left alone for awhile, so he hopped a ferry and came here, where everything was calm and peaceful.

It wasn't even as though they knew what was wrong. Pegasus had been very careful about leaving his staff in the dark about Cyndia. She was his secret, his past, his problem. That's why they didn't know that tomorrow was the seven-year anniversary of her death.

Seven years........it seemed so much longer. It wasn't as though he was sad, necessarily, he felt more..........empty? Hollow? Numb? All three combined? Whatever it was, Pegasus just needed to be left alone, to just distract himself. And to get away. This small town was perfect for doing just that. It had an ethereal quality about it, as though it were worlds and worlds away from anything and everything to do with Cyndia.

As Pegasus walked along, a puff of cigar smoke was blown directly into his face, causing him to stop and cough a good few times before turning to see who was responsible. The elderly man in the flannel smiled apologetically, then inhaled from the cigar once again. "Sorry 'bout that, sir. Didn't see you a'coming."

Pegasus waved the remaining cigar smoke away from his face, then mumbled, "No, no, it's quite alright..." He would have turned away and continued walking, but the man continued to speak, as though they were two friends embroiled in a deep discussion. "Y'know, I been smokin' this here cigar for a long time now......I'm tryin' to set a world record. I must've been smokin' this thing here every day for six years now." The man thoughtfully puffed his cigar smoke into a ring that sailed hazily above Pegasus's head. "No, no, that's not right....must've been smokin' it for almost seven years by now." He shot Pegasus a yellow-toothed grin. "Seven years sure is a long time, ain't it?"

Pegasus nodded. "Yes, seven years is a long time," he stated quietly. Seven years? It must've been a coincidence....

Out of curiosity, Pegasus inquired, "How could you have been smoking that every day for seven years?" The man puffed another smoke ring, this one much larger. "I savor every puff." "I see..." The man puffed yet another ring of smoke, this time directly into Pegasus's face. Pegasus coughed a few times before he stated brusquely, "Those things can kill you, you know."

The man shrugged. "I don't mind. I'm not scared of dying, even if everyone else is. Besides....." He inhaled once again. "....not taking any risks doesn't mean anything. Careful people can die young just as easily as everyone else." The man's eyes seemed to gleam a little as he looked at Pegasus. "But you'd know more about that than I would, wouldn't you?"

Pegasus felt uneasy as the man stared at him. "I don't know what you're talking about." The man chuckled. "Alright, if you say so." Pegasus, feeling nervous, tried to turn and leave, but the man continued to speak. "I suppose yer wonderin' why I stopped you here to talk to me. Well, I'm a vendor, jist like a lot of the folks here. And I think you might be interested in what I have to sell."

"Oh, really? And what are you selling?"

"Wishes."  
  
The man laughed as an incredulous look spread across Pegasus's face. "Thought you wouldn't believe me. But look...." The man held out the pouch in his left hand, beckoning Pegasus to take it. Pegasus did so, glancing inside to see dozens of small, smooth green stones. "Pretty, aren't they? They're made 'a peridot."

"Are they now...."  
  
"They've been blessed by Celtic magic from ages ago, enchanted to grant whatever wish it is given." Once again, the man smiled his yellow grin. "'Course, I can't sell 'em to jist anyone. Most people are idiots, wantin' wealth or fame." Pegasus wasn't sure, but he thought he saw the man's eyes sparkle for a little bit. "I only sell wishes to those who desire something truly worthy. Can't waste wishes, y'know." He glanced at Pegasus before blowing another smoke ring. "I think I can trust you not to wish for something stupid. After all, y'should know best of all how little wealth and fame can mean."

Pegasus stared at the man in reproach. "So you're just a swindler. You pull people over and tell them fairy tales about Celtic magic, then tell them that they're 'special' so that you can sell them worthless chunks of rock."  
  
The man showed no change of emotion, ad he continued to grin and puff smoke rings. "If I'd told you it was Egyptian magic, you would've believed me."

Pegasus glared at the man. "I have no idea what you're talking about."  
  
Laughter emitted from the man's lips. "Liar."

The man watched one of his smoke rings as it slowly evaporated into the air. "I know more about you than you know about yourself. Y'just don't want to realize what's right in fronta you. And besides......." The yellow grin widened. ".......y'were able to read people's souls jist as well as me 'til a few months ago."

Pegasus felt the impulse to run away and not look back. But another part of him was intrigued. "How do you know so much about me?"

"People're like books, Mr. Crawford. Not those thick 'uns by Victor Hugo and the like, I mean those cheap, trashy ones y'can buy fer a dollar at any pharmacy in the country. They're very easy t'read, and it don't take long to do so. People like t'think they're so deep, so complex, but I've seen so many people in my life that I know that ain't true. Now you, fer example......" The man waved the cigar accusingly at Pegasus. ".....yer one of the exceptions. Y'have more substance than most people I could find. That's why I stopped you."  
  
The man now waved the cigar at the pouch that still rested in Pegasus's hand. "Everyone has at least one wish, one thing that they want so badly it tears them up inside. Like I said b'fore, most've 'em are idiotic, but I know that y'have a real wish, one that won't be a waste."

Pegasus looked at the pouch in his hand. "So what do I do with my wish?"  
  
"Take out one of th'stones in that bag." Pegasus did so, and the man nodded. "Now hold it in yer left hand, and bring it up right in front of yer face." When Pegasus held it in front of his eyes, he noticed that the stone seemed to sparkle as the sun gleamed against it, speaking of limitless powers, the likes of which Pegasus would never see again.

"Now whisper yer wish to it. And be quiet about it, if I hear it, or anyone else does, it don' work."  
  
Pegasus glimpsed at the stone before cupping it in front of his mouth, softly saying, "_I wish......I wish I knew why Cyndia had to die so young.......and I want things to turn out differently......I don't want her to be dead"_

Pegasus lowered his hands, and the man held out the basket filled with stones. "Now place it here. This is where all of the other wishes are held." Pegasus placed his stone carefully with the others, then faced the man. "What do I owe you for........for your services?"  
  
"Wait 'til yer wish is granted. Then come to see me again."

The man glanced around the farmers' market. "You'd best be goin' now. Sun's almost set, and y'need to catch a ferry home don't you?" The man then tipped his hat, and walked away to the horizon.

As Pegasus made his way back to the docks, he had the distinct impression that he had just spent ten minutes with a madman.

That night when Pegasus got ready for bed, he felt like he was on the verge of a headache. Not only had cigar fumes been blown into his face for ten minutes, but Croquet seemed to want to be his mother. As soon as Pegasus got back, he had to face several minutes of "Where on earth were you?" and "Why didn't you just TELL someone where you were going?" and, his personal favorite, "You did this just to give me gray hair, right?"

It was absurd to the point of laughter. Pegasus felt like a monkey in a cage, with zookeepers milling around wherever he went. Except he had to PAY his zookeepers. And it wasn't even as though there was sincere affection behind what they did. It all came down to one fact: if he died, they'd need new jobs.

Climbing into bed, Pegasus wondered what on earth had possessed him back at the farmer's market. It was obvious that the guy was a nut, possibly a scam artist, and in either case Pegasus should have known better not to believe him. So what on earth had gotten him to buy a "wish"? He didn't know, but something must have clearly been influencing him. Maybe the cigar was actually marijuana or something.

Pegasus plopped down onto the mattress and let his head sink into his pillow. Some small part of his brain, the one still affected by the cigar fumes, perhaps, wondered if there might be some truth behind what the man had said. Maybe the stones could actually grant wishes. The rational part of Pegasus' brain laughed as he thought this. As if it were that simple to bring people back from the dead.

That night, Pegasus had a dream. He had had it so many times before, that he had memorized every detail of it from start to finish.

He and Cyndia stood together at the altar of a beautiful cathedral, lined with brilliantly colored stained glass windows. As Pegasus placed a ring on Cyndia's finger, she looked at him and smiled softly. The two moved towards each other, embracing slowly, when suddenly, Cyndia was snatched away by a giant rose. As he watched in disbelief, rose petals began to rain down from the ceiling.

However, this time the dream had a different ending. As Pegasus's gaze moved from the rose petals back to the space in front of him, the man with the cigar suddenly appeared in front of him.

As he lit his cigar, the man turned to Pegasus reproachfully. "What are you still doing here?" Pegasus stared at him, wide-eyed, his mouth agape. The man waved his cigar at him accusingly. "You want her back, don't you? Then go get her!"

And with that, the cathedral disappeared, and Pegasus began falling from the sky. As he streaked past the clouds, he saw that, directly below him, stood Cyndia with her arms wide open as though she would attempt to catch him. As he continued to accelerate in his freefall, Pegasus screamed to her, "Cyndia, LOOK OUT!!"

Just as Pegasus was about to hit Cyndia, she vanished once again, so quickly that it did not immediately register in Pegasus's mind. Once it did, however, he looked around and found that he couldn't see. Or move, for that matter. As he squirmed around, he all of a sudden realized that he was trapped. As he screamed for help, his fingers scrabbled frantically against wood surface, as he kicked his legs in an effort to make someone hear him. Quickly, Pegasus was gasping for air, feeling himself suffocate from the lack of air within his confines.

He had been trapped inside of a coffin.

Pegasus found himself being rudely awoken by a pair of strong hands shaking him. "C'mon, Pegsy, it's time to wake up......"

"I dun wanna......."  
  
A highly feminine voice sighed, then the hands proceeded to continue shaking him. "C'mon, it's time to get up! It's almost noon!"

"Five more minutes......"  
  
Pegasus heard someone's foot tapping impatiently on the floor. "Well, if you're not going to get up, then there's only one thing I can do..."  
  
"Wha?"  
  
"TICKLES!" And with that, Pegasus was forced awake by a pair of hands tickling him relentlessly, despite his pleas for mercy. Giggling while trying desperately to squirm away, Pegasus opened his eyes to see a tall, middle-aged woman as his tormenter.

When she finally stopped, she leaned against the wall, chuckling, while Pegasus tried his best not to smile, in an attempt to look very, very stern. "That wasn't funny, Mom," he said as a grin broke out on his face. The woman just continued to laugh. "Well, you deserved it, or else you would never have gotten up." She stood upright, no longer needing the wall to support herself. "Now, come on, it's time for lunch."

As Pegasus followed her downstairs, he passed a mirror, and he stopped briefly to look at his reflection. He stood about four and a half feet tall, and his silver mane stopped a few inches short of his shoulders. And he had both of his eyes. Pegasus felt confused for a moment. Why did he feel so out of place? He felt like he was much older for an instant, having a vision of himself as much taller, with much longer hair, and his left eye gone. But why did he think that? He must have had some really odd dreams last night, to think he was going to lose an eyeball...

Pegasus shook it off as the remainder of some odd nightmare. He wasn't an adult yet, he was only ten years old! And he had two perfectly good eyeballs, thank-you-very-much! And with that, he quickly ran past his mother, screeching, "LAST ONE TO BREAKFAST IS A FARGLESNOT!!!"

About fifteen minutes later, Pegasus was clearing off his dish from breakfast when his mother turned to him and said, "Oh and I forgot to tell you before, guests will be here in a few minutes."  
  
"Really? Who?"  
  
And with that, Pegasus found himself being tackled from behind. The dish he was carrying went flying, and as Pegasus tried to get up to retreat it, he found that he couldn't get up due to the fact that someone was sitting on his back. And giggling insanely, no less.

"Morning, Pegasus-kun!" A ten year-old Cyndia stood up so that Pegasus could finally breathe after having the wind knocked out of him. She then turned around. "And good morning to you, Mrs. Crawford!" Pegasus's mother smiled a little. "Good morning to you, too, Cyndia. I didn't expect you here so soon. Where are your parents?"

"They're in the drawing room. They're placing bets on baseball with Mr. Crawford."  
  
Mrs. Crawford groaned loudly. "Not AGAIN!" And with that, she scampered out of the room to prevent her husband from making idiotic gambles, which, as a Las Vegas casino owner, he was bound to do. As she watched Mrs. Crawford leave, Cyndia called after her, "Remember, root for the Yankees!"

Pegasus sat up on the kitchen floor, and Cyndia turned to him with a wide grin on her face. "Morning, sleepy-head!" Pegasus still, regaining his breath after nearly having a heart attack, slowly said, "Morning...to you....too.......Cyndia..."  
  
After a few minutes, Pegasus, managed to stand up. "So how have you been doing, Cyndia?"  
  
"Pretty good. Are you wide-awake now?"  
  
"Yeah, why?"  
  
"Good. TAG, YOU'RE IT!" With that Cyndia tapped him on the shoulder, then sped off in the other direction, Pegasus chasing after her as best he could.

Pegasus ran out of the kitchen and down one long hallway, but stopped abruptly when he noticed one of the closet door was open a little. He quietly approached the closet, careful not to make a sound. Then, he quickly swung open the door, yelling, 'BOO!' Only the closet was empty. No Cyndia to be found.

Pegasus was about to turn around and continue his search when he was knocked over once again by a hyper Cyndia. "GOT YA!" Pegasus landed face forwards, with Cyndia on top of him, roaring with laughter.

Cyndia rolled off of Pegasus and stood up. "Wanna keep playing tag?"  
  
Pegasus sat up, shaking his head. "Nuh-uh. You always win."

"Okay, then whaddya wanna do?"  
  
"I dun care, what do you wanna do?"  
  
Cyndia smiled sweetly, then replied, "Can I do your hair?"  
  
"WHAT?!"

"Pleeeeeeeease? It's so PRETTY! And Mom taught me how to do French braids! Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleeeeeeeeeeeease?"

"...........okay."

"YAY! Thank you, Pegasus!" She gave him a big bear hug, and then ran off to go borrow a hair brush.

Five minutes later, Pegasus was sitting in a chair as Cyndia skillfully manipulated his hair into cornrows. At one point, Mr. Crawford had walked by and seen them, proceeding laugh and murmur something or other about femininity. Pegasus was still trying to figure out what he had meant.

While Cyndia was putting the finishing touches on Pegasus's hair, Pegasus stated, out of the blue, "I had a dream about you last night."  
  
Cyndia stopped what she was doing for a second. "Really? What was it about?"  
  
"I think.......we were older, and then you died or something, but then you got swallowed up by a rose......it was really weird."  
  
"I died by getting swallowed by a rose?"

"No, you died, and THEN got swallowed by the rose."  
  
"Well, then, how did I really die?"  
  
"I don't remember it that well...." Pegasus tried to conjure up a vision of what exactly had happened in his dream, but he didn't remember it that well. He finally conjured one detail.....

"Screaming. There was lots of screaming." Cyndia wrinkled her nose a little in response. "I think you need to stop watching horror movies before bed, Pegasus. Lemme guess, you watched one last night?"  
  
"Hey, I've been waiting FOREVER to see 'Poltergeist'!"

Cyndia wagged a finger at him, but grinning to show that she was teasing. "You better be careful, young man, or you're going to turn into Freddy Krueger!"  
  
Pegasus grinned widely. "What if I already HAVE?" He stood up, and began to stalk towards Cyndia, holding his fingers in a claw-like fashion. Cyndia giggled, then ran away, laughing, "Help! Help! Pegasus is gonna chop me up into little pieces!" Pegasus chased her, making hilarious growling noises. In retrospect, it was even funnier, since Pegasus didn't realize at the time that his hair was still in cornrows.

Pegasus was in a dark room, with no discernable walls, ceiling or floor. He could barely see his nose on his face, and he began to look around. There seemed to be nothing there.....no sounds were made except for the light tread of his own footsteps, disturbing the eerie quiet that permeated the room.

After several minutes of wandering, Pegasus finally heard something..........a woman's voice. He turned sharply to the left, where he saw a very young Cyndia sitting on the ground, illuminated by a spotlight that seemed to come from nowhere. Even when he said her name, Cyndia did not look up. Instead, she twirled a small rose between her fingers. She couldn't have been more than five or six, although it was difficult to tell.

Cyndia stopped twirling the rose and held it firmly in her left hand. Placing her thumb and forefinger around one of the rose's petals, Cyndia pulled it off, saying softly, "He loves me." She then repeated the process with another petal. "He loves me not."

As soon as she said those words, Pegasus noticed that Cyndia had quickly grown older. Now she was no longer a five-year old, but a pre-teen. Cyndia pulled off two more petals, "He loves me, he loves me not." And with that, she became a full-fledged teenager.

This process continued for every pair of petals that she removed from the rose. She changed from a teenager to a woman in her twenties, then into a middle-aged woman, counting down the petals until Cyndia looked as though she were a century old.

Withered and gray, Cyndia's shaking hand plucked the last petal from the rose. Happily. she cried, "He loves me!" And with that, her skeleton fell forward to the ground, landing at Pegasus's feet.

Pegasus woke with a start, cold sweat running down his face. What a nightmare. Those cigar fumes must have affected his brain for him to have had such odd dreams all night long. First he had been trapped in a coffin, then he was ten years old, and then Cyndia.......

Well, no matter, they were just dreams anyway.

Pegasus stepped out onto the floor and yawned. He heard someone knock on his door quietly, and Croquet poked his head in. "A thousand pardons, sir, but I just wanted to see if you had woken up."  
  
"Alright."  
  
"Excuse me if I seem forward, sir, but you didn't seem well last night. Several others heard you screaming and thrashing in your sleep throughout the night."  
  
Pegasus wiped the sleep from his eyes while attempting to conjure a reassuring smile. "I just had some odd dreams last night, that's all. Nothing to worry about, Croquet."

"Yes, well..........."  
  
"What? What is it?"

"Well, many of the others have been saying that you haven't been acting like yourself lately."  
  
"Well, it's just........today is the seventh anniversary of when Cyndia.......well, you get the idea."  
  
Croquet nodded, understanding. "Perhaps it would help if you went to go visit Ms. Cyndia."

Pegasus was confused for a minute, until comprehension dawned on him. "Oh, you mean her grave."  
  
"Excuse me, sir?"  
  
"Well, I got confused for a second. I thought you meant I should actually visit Cyndia."  
  
"Er, but........that's what I meant, sir."  
  
Pegasus stared at Croquet oddly. "Croquet, that's impossible. Cyndia's DEAD. I saw her die."  
  
Croquet gave Pegasus a bewildered look. "Sir, are you sure you're alright?"  
  
Pegasus's temper rose a little. "Yes, Croquet, I'm perfectly fine. Why are you asking?"  
  
Croquet shifted his weight onto his left foot, feeling somewhat like a child caught in mischief. "Well, you keep saying that Ms. Cyndia is dead, and I just thought you might be confused....."  
  
"What do you mean? Are you saying that Cyndia is ALIVE?"

"Well.........yes, actually."  
  
Pegasus stared at Croquet in disbelief. Was this his sick idea of a joke? Cyndia had died before Croquet could have ever met her! What on earth was going on?

"Croquet........if Cyndia IS alive......then where is she?"  
  
"She's at the hospital, just like she has been for seven years now, sir."  
  
"What on earth is she doing at the hospital?!"

"Well, sir, she suffered severe nerve damage in the.....erm.............accident........and she's been in a coma ever since."

Pegasus sat down on the edge of his mattress, his mind swirling. Was she really ........Cyndia was ALIVE?!!!

CK: That's all for now, please read and review! And stay tuned for the next chapter, which should be up within two weeks! Ja ne!


	2. Leaves

CK: I'm back! Sorry that I took a little longer than I though I would, but I've had a busy weekend.

BlackieChuu: Farglesnot! WHEEEEE!!!  
  
SW: Yay! You're a Pegasus-lover, too! Kewlies! ((Sorry, acting like a ditz today))

Myotismon13: glomp Ye hath returned-eth! Yay!

Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh or any of the movies mentioned in this chapter. Or Hamlet.

Queen (scattering flowers): Sweets to the sweet: farewell!

I hoped thou wouldst have been my Hamlet's wife

I thought thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet maid

And not have strew'd thy grave

Laertes: O, treble woe...

Hold off the earth a while,

Till I have caught her once more in mine arms.

-_Hamlet_, Act V, Scene 1

Death and Roses

As Pegasus sat in the hospital room, he couldn't shake off the feeling that he was wandering through a dream. Cyndia was lying there in front of him, and yet....he couldn't shake off the feeling that it wasn't real, as though he had stepped out of reality for a moment.

Cyndia looked different than he remembered her. She had aged, and she was no longer a teenager of seventeen. A thin, winding scar could be traced from her forehead to the middle of her left cheek, where it stopped abruptly. And her skin was pale.....much paler than he had remembered it to be.

He held her hand as she softly breathed into a machine, and IV running from her wrist was attached to a bag of fluids. Her eyes were closed, as though she were simply sleeping, and would wake up at any minute. She had sunk deeply into the mattress from years of just lying there, and Pegasus suspected that, were she every to awaken, her imprint would stay there forever.

The room seemed very clean, very sterile, very lifeless. The walls, the floor, the bed, the chairs, all of them were pure, stark white. Not a speck of dirt could be found anywhere. Pegasus felt like a blot on the scenery, sitting there wearing a black coat.

As Pegasus held Cyndia's hands, his thumb moved towards her wrist to feel for a pulse. Sure enough, he felt its rhythmic beating and felt reassured.

So Cyndia really was alive.........Pegasus almost felt like laughing at himself. His dreams must have been very lifelike. What else could have convinced him that Cyndia had died? Poor Croquet, the man must be convinced that he was crazy by now. Well, Pegasus would have to try and explain the dreams he'd been having, or he might be dragged to a shrink....again.

Pegasus wondered if he was going insane. He had only visited Cyndia, what, four days ago? She was far from dead, so what had made him think otherwise? Well, no matter, at least he was alright now.

Poor Cyndia......the doctors had already told Cyndia's family that the chances of her waking up were slim to none. Pegasus missed her so badly, it was almost as if she really _had_ died. Imagine.....even if she did wake up, she would be a seventeen year-old trapped in a twenty-four year-old's body. She'd have missed so much in that time, how would she be able to adjust? And what if she _never_ woke up? All of these thoughts plagued Pegasus, but there wasn't a whole lot that he could do......all he really could do was hope that everything would be all right in the end.

A nurse entered the room to refill Cyndia's IV bag when she abruptly notice Pegasus. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were in here..." she stammered. "Oh, that's alright, don't worry about it," Pegasus assured her.  
  
The nurse stood there for another few seconds, seeming like she was about to say something, but thought it was not her place to speak. Finally, Pegasus turned to her and said, "Yes? Is something wrong, miss?"

"Well, sir, it's just.....well, it's almost ten at night. Shouldn't you be getting home?"  
  
"Oh, yes.....home. That place. Well, I would have liked to stay a little longer, but I'll probably miss my ferry if I do."  
  
He stood up and gathered his coat, casting one last look upon a seemingly peaceful Cyndia. He turned to the nurse with a reassuring smile. "Thank you for pointing out the time. Have a good-night."  
  
"You too, Mr. Crawford."

As Pegasus left the room, the nurse melted away, and in her place stood an all too-familiar man wearing flannel and smoking a cigar. Pegasus, not knowing the change that had occurred, continued walking away as the man puffed away happily. "Sweet dreams, Mr. Crawford. And don't let reality confuse you too much this early in the game."

(Death and roses, love everlasting...)

As he got ready for bed, Pegasus buttoned his pajama top and looked in the mirror, his thoughts wandering off to places far away. As he was buttoning, a piece of dust flew into his left eye, making it water. Pegasus began rubbing his eye thoroughly, and once it was out, he pushed his hair aside to look in the mirror to see if his eye had turned red.

What he saw in the mirror seemed to surprise him for a moment. When he looked at his face, he thought that something was missing, or that something had changed since he had last checked. But he couldn't imagine what it was. Maybe he was just delusional from being tired....yes, that made more sense.

And with that, Pegasus lay down in bed, covering himself with sheets and preparing for dreams and nightmares alike.

(Death and roses, love everlasting...)

Pegasus had returned to the dark room once again, the one without a floor or a ceiling or walls. Once again, the darkness pervaded his mind, and he could see nothing. But he could hear. And he heard a woman's voice singing.

Cyndia...

"Mistress Mary, quite contrary how does your garden grow?"

She sang in a childlike voice, as though she had aged but never really grown up. Which made sense, somewhat...she was immortally frozen at the age of seventeen, never having a chance to cross the threshold to adulthood. She would always be a child in Pegasus's mind.

"With silver bells and cockle shells and pretty maids all in a row!"

Pegasus began calling out her name in a vain attempt to find where she was. No one answered. Instead, the voice began singing again...

"Ring around the rosy, a pocket full of posies..."

And then her saw her, once again bathed in an ethereal light. She was in a field, and carried a basket full of rose petals with her. She walked around the field aimlessly, carelessly tossing rose petals as she wandered.

Pegasus tried to run to her, but his efforts were in vain, since no matter how hard his feet pushed against the ground, she always remained out of his grasp. He continued screaming her name, hoping she would hear him. "Cyndia! CYNDIA!" But there was no response.

Cyndia tossed the last of the rose petals onto the ground below her, then began to spin around, basket in hand. As she spun, she continued her song:  
  
"Ashes, ashes, we all....fall....down!"  
  
And with that, Cyndia burst into a flurry of rose petals, which were carried away with the wind. They brushed by Pegasus's outstretched fingers, but he could not grasp a single petal.

(Death and roses, love everlasting....)

"Mr. Crawford....."  
  
ZZZZZZZZ  
  
"_Mr. Crawford......"_

ZZZZZZZZ  
  
"MR. CRAWFORD!"

Pegasus was abruptly awoken as a ruler thwacked his desk right in front of where he was sleeping. Pegasus quickly sat upright to find himself face-to-face with his Physics teacher, Mr. Speicher. His entire classroom burst into a fit of giggles as Mr. Speicher shot him a horrifically stern look.

Two hours later, Pegasus found himself sitting in detention, writing over and over again, "I will not stay up late watching 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' on cable TV." He was absolutely certain that he would die of boredom, until he heard a high-pitched giggle coming from a few feet away.

Pegasus turned his head to see a thirteen year-old Cyndia sitting on one of the desks nearby. When she saw that he had seen her, she stood up and made her way over to his desk, sauntering her way along. "So you got busted by Mr. Speicher again, huh?"  
  
Pegasus could feel his cheeks turning red as she said this. He turned back to his paper, mumbling, "I fell asleep in class."

Cyndia sat on the edge of his desk, turning around to pick up Pegasus's looseleaf so she could read it. "'Texas Chainsaw Massacre'? Pegasus, haven't you seen that movie about a hundred times?"  
  
"Only ten. It's a good movie, a classic!"  
  
Cyndia groaned, holding her head in her hands to indicate her mock shame of Pegasus. "Pegs, you have to stop with the horror movies. They've turned into an obsession."  
  
"Hey, YOU'RE obsessed with chick flicks!"  
  
"Am not!"

"Are too! How many times have you watched 'Pretty Woman'?"  
  
Now it was Cyndia's turn to blush. She mumbled a number incoherently.

"What's that? I couldn't hear you?" Pegasus cupped his hand to his ear for comic effect.

"Eight times."  
  
"I told you."

All of a sudden, Pegasus noticed for the first time that there was no proctor in sight. "Hey, where did the teacher go?"

"Mrs. Thomas? She went to the teacher's lounge for some coffee. That should probably buy you about fifteen minutes, maybe twenty."

"The woman's a caffeine fiend."

"Amen to that."

Cyndia hopped off of Pegasus's desk and proceeded to doodle on the chalkboard. From Pegasus's viewpoint it looked like she was drawing a picture of Mrs. Thomas running around town, robbing various coffee shops.

Pegasus watched her as she drew. She looked very pretty in her school uniform....and her hair. He liked looking at her hair. It always looked so soft and silky. And her eyes were always glittering, like ripples on a pool of water...

Pegasus felt his cheeks go on fire again, and he tried to return his focus to the 500 sentences that he needed to write. He couldn't stare at her. He couldn't. She was a friend, just a friend, nothing more. He couldn't have a crush on Cyndia. He couldn't. They had been friends since they were little, and he wasn't her type. She needed someone more spontaneous and outgoing than him.

Cyndia stepped away from the chalkboard, examining her handiwork. "It's my magnum opus! Or at least it's today's magnum opus. Whaddya think?"  
  
Pegasus chuckled. "Mrs. Thomas will be proud."

Cyndia shrugged. "Doesn't matter what she thinks. I just like saying 'magnum opus'."

Pegasus chuckled, but as he did so, he had a sudden flash of memory. Roses. A hospital. Singing. Darkness. Death. Screaming.

"Mistress Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?"  
  
"What?"  
  
Pegasus jumped, startled to realize that he had just spoken out loud. He looked over at Cyndia, who had a confused expression on her face. "Nothing, it was nothing."  
  
"Aaw, c'mon, you can tell me!" Cyndia pranced over to Pegasus' desk and kneeled in front of him. She folded her arms in front of him and rested her chin on her arms, looking up at him wide-eyed.

Pegasus tried not to grin, knowing that she was giving him her standard 'Bambi Eyes'. "I had a dream about you last night."  
  
Cyndia visibly perked up. "Ooh, was it that one where I get swallowed by the flower."  
  
"No. What makes you think that?"  
  
Cyndia rolled her eyes. "You've only had that dream about a MILLION TIMES. If it wasn't that, then what was it?"

"I think......you were in a hospital or something like that. But then you were in a field......I dunno, I don't remember it that well."  
  
Cyndia stared at him for a few seconds as Pegasus tried to recollect his dreams. After a few seconds, she broke the silence, and his train of thought, by saying, "Stop that."

"Huh? What?"  
  
"Stop looking so worried. You ALWAYS do that when you dream about me. For goodness's sakes, I'm THIRTEEN, I'm not going to d-...."  
  
Cyndia's sentence was cut off when she suddenly grabbed her chest, gasping for air. She fell onto the floor, writhing in a haphazard manner, and then suddenly stopped moving.

Pegasus tried his absolute hardest not to grin. "That wasn't funny, you know."  
  
Cyndia batted her eyes open and sat up. "No, no, I'm serious, I'm dying. Look!" She fell back on the ground and continued to writhe around.

Pegasus laughed and sat on the ground. "No, no, you have to do it more like _this_." And with that, he began to writhe on the ground as well, flailing his arms and legs to the best of his ability. Cyndia laughed and began to imitate him. This went on for several minutes. However, their fun was cut short when a newly energized Mrs. Thomas arrived. Between the two pre-teens writhing on the floor and the cartoon on the blackboard, they both had detention for about a month.

(Death and roses, love everlasting...)

That night, Pegasus once again returned to the dark room with no walls. But this time, Cyndia was with him. They were dancing.

Slow music played as they waltzed together. Her head rested on his shoulder as she breathed softly against his neck. Pegasus's hand rested against her back, holding her close to him as he led their dance. Cyndia's eyes were closed, savoring their moment together, as Pegasus watched over her carefully, as though she were as fragile as a piece of glass.

After a few minutes, the pace of the music began to change, and their slow waltz began to quicken. They didn't seem to mind though, they were just happy to be together. As they quickened their steps, the music picked up a more frantic pace until it took all of their effort just to stay in time.

After about a minute, Pegasus began to notice that something was wrong. As Cyndia danced, her feet seemed to be melting into a small puddle beneath her. As they continued their waltz, Cyndia's feet vanished completely and her legs began to vanish as well. As this process went on, Pegasus saw what exactly Cyndia was melting into.

It was a pool of blood.

Although Pegasus wanted desperately to stop the dance, to warn Cyndia of what was happening, some unseen force made him continue with the waltz, even as the music continued to quicken and Cyndia's torso began to disappear.

As the dancing sped up, Pegasus watched helplessly as Cyndia's arm and face melted away until nothing more was left except for the puddle of blood. As the last of Cyndia vanished, the music changed from a frantic dance to a slow funeral march, and Pegasus knelt beside the lake of blood, running his fingers absentmindedly through what was once Cyndia. As he trailed his fingers against the red liquid, he saw the drops of blood transform into tiny little buds. As he stared in amazement, the buds quickly bloomed in front of his eyes, and then withered, shedding their now rotting petals.

They were roses.

(Death and roses, love everlasting...)

Pegasus awoke suddenly as a shrill alarm rang. He groaned, then turned his alarm clock off as he pulled the covers around him so that he could go back to sleep. Fate, as it were, seemed to want him to awaken, since only a few seconds later, Croquet burst into his room, happily proclaiming, "Good morning, sir."  
  
Pegasus groaned and tried to block out the noise.

Pegasus could hear Croquet make tutting noises as he began to shake his employer awake. "C'mon, sir, it's time to get up. Some of us have already been awake for three hours."  
  
Pegasus sighed and sat up, blinking as his eyes got used to the light. Croquet, satisfied to see that he had finally gotten up, stood nearby. After a few minutes, Pegasus stood up and retrieved a bathrobe from his closet, placing it over his pajamas. He then turned to Croquet, "Is Cyndia awake yet?"  
  
"Yes, sir, she's in the drawing room, reading."

Pegasus nodded as he made his way downstairs to greet his wife.

When he reached the drawing room, he found Cyndia reading by herself, just as Croquet had said. When Pegasus entered the room, however, she turned her head to see him and her eyes lit up. "Morning, Pegasus."

Pegasus smiled at her warmly. "Good morning, Cyndia."  
  
Cyndia put her book down on a nearby coffee table, and then turned her wheelchair around so that she could hug her husband good morning.


	3. Roots

CK: Hi, it's me again, and welcome to Chapter 3 of 'Death and Roses'! There're two things I need to tell you before I start...

1) Whenever there's a scene change (i.e. changing from reality to a dream), you'll see this:

(Death and roses, love everlasting)

I did this last chapter, and it was brought to my attention that you might not understand what that meant.

2) The next chapter will NOT be the last chapter of the story, as I had planned. Rather, I plan on doing two more chapters, since this story is going to be longer than I had thought.

Anyway, on to the responses!

Myotismon13: Thank you for the compliments, and for noticing the connection to the butterfly story! As I said in Chapter 1, I borrowed a lot from that story, but hopefully, not too much. As for the ending...well, you'll just have to wait and see. .-

Flowering Wolfsbane: Hey, weird is good! And the Twilight Zone is an old TV show known for having odd, supernatural plots that were very creepy.

CPegasus: Don't worry 'bout jumping around, now with the addition of (Death and roses, love everlasting...)! Wheee! See you online!

Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh or any comic strips or ice cream parlors or movies or really aaaaaanything in here except for, you know, the plot, the actions, the words, etc.

Death and Roses

Pegasus hugged his wife, and, when they had ended their embrace, crouched down next to her to meet her at eye level. "So, how long have you been awake for?"

"Mm....probably two hours."

"Gah....I'll never understand you morning people."

Cyndia gave him an accusing look, although she smiled to show that she was only teasing. "Just because some of us don't wait until noon to get up doesn't mean that we're morning people."

"Is it really noon already?"

"Yes, really. Honestly, the reason you stay so skinny is because you skip breakfast altogether and wake up just in time for lunch."

Pegasus chuckled and folded his arms onto her knees, looking up at her with doe-eyes. "Well, would you rather I wake up earlier and grow flabby on you?"

Cyndia wagged her finger at Pegasus, mockingly reproaching him. "Now you stop that. Those are _my_ patented Bambi eyes, and only I can use them."

"Well, that was back when you were single. We're married now, we have to share everything. Like my shampoo that keeps running out so quickly?" Pegasus teased.

Cyndia blushed a little, but pretended to be indignant. "Just because I borrow a _little_ of your shampoo......"

Pegasus laughed, then reached up and kissed his wife. "C'mon, let's go eat this 'breakfast' thing that you keep talking about."

"But it's _lunch_-time."

"So we'll have both. It'll put some meat on our skinny bones."

Cyndia laughed as she wheeled her way to the kitchen, following her husband.

(Death and roses, love everlasting...)

After an odd meal consisting of eggs, toast, and leftover pizza, Pegasus and Cyndia sat at the kitchen table feeling quite full. Croquet had left the newspaper on the table, leaving Cyndia to read the advice columns while Pegasus read the comics (of course). This resulted in Cyndia tsk-ing every few minutes at Dear Abby, while Pegasus went into fits of near-hysteria as he marveled at the genius of 'Opus' and 'Dilbert'.

After a few minutes, Pegasus looked up and turned to his wife, asking, "Any good letters in the advice columns?"

"Hm, well, there's this one woman who wants to know if its okay to have her minister baptize her ferret. What about your comics? Did Deanna have the baby yet?"

"Yes, meaning that 'For Better of for Worse' is going to abandon humor for sentimental shmutz for a week." Pegasus groaned at that last sentence, not being one for sentimental shmutz. He wanted the FUNNIES fer cryin' out loud!

Cyndia rolled her eyes a little when she heard him. "Honestly, is sentimentality so bad?"

"When it interferes with the comics? Yes, yes it is."

This remark was met with a chuckle. "You suck."

"Well, it's your fault that you went and married the guy that sucks." Pegasus, in an effort to appear insulted, pouted and crossed his arms like a three year-old would. This pose had its desired effect and made Cyndia laugh hard enough that she choked slightly on her tea.

Pegasus grinned as Cyndia tried to regain her composure. When she finally did, she sat up straight and guided her wheelchair over to where her husband sat. "Well, okay, maybe you don't suck." She rested her head against his should, peering up at him while she wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

"Aaw, you really mean it? I don't suck? That's the sweetest thing anyone's ever told me!" Cyndia giggled, and then squeezed her husband slightly. Pegasus stroked one of her hands with his own, asking her, "So, what do you want to do today? We have a whole Saturday in front of us."

"Mm, doesn't really matter to me. What about you?"

"I think today's one of those days where it's alright to just lie around the house and do nothing."

"That sounds like a plan to me."

Approximately five hours later, Pegasus lay slumped on the den couch while Cyndia sat lazily in her wheelchair. They had spent their day watching the movie 'The Birdcage', watching old cartoons from the sixties, attempting to make brownies but ultimately eating the batter, and, to top it all off, engaging in a rambunctious pillow fight. By that point, the sugar from the brownie batter had worn off, and they were a bit worn out.

Pegasus, who had overdosed badly on the batter, looked over at his wife, who also seemed to be stuffed with the gooey substance. Her wheelchair glimmered slightly, and Pegasus suddenly felt sad, even though he had been so happy only seconds ago. Pegasus remembered when the doctors had told Cyndia's family that she would need a wheelchair for the rest of her life. Surprisingly, though, they were somewhat happy to hear this. They had expected much worse. They had thought Cyndia was going to die.

Pegasus remembered the day Cyndia got hurt vividly. She had suffered spinal damage, and had lost the use of her legs. But she recovered nicely, and she had been doing well ever since the accident.

Ah, yes....'the accident'. Nobody ever liked to talk about what had happened to Cyndia. Everyone just called it 'the accident'. It wasn't even really an accident, but it was vague enough that people could say it freely without bringing up painful memories. And no one really wanted to remember what had happened. All anyone wanted was a phrase that was non-descript enough that they could forget.

Pegasus's thoughts were interrupted when Cyndia, feeling quite bloated and sluggish, moaned, "I dun think that we should have eaten all that batter....."

Pegasus grinned. "But it tasted so good at the time."

Cyndia grunted slightly as she attempted to pull herself upright in her wheelchair. "Ugh.......I am NEVER eating another brownie in my life."

Pegasus smirked. "You've said that before when you had too many brownies."

"Well, _this_ time I mean it."

"Right."

Pegasus checked his watch, then sat up, somewhat uncomfortably. "It's only five in the afternoon, but I'm ready to hit the sack."

"You've only been _awake_ for a few hours!"

Pegasus stood up, then began to head out of the room while still talking. "Yeah, but you wore me out with pillow fighting."

Cyndia grinned impishly, remembering. "I beat you good, didn't I-...."

Cyndia would have continued her sentence if it hadn't been that Pegasus, tricking her into a false sense of security, had just picked up a pillow and thwacked her on the head, screeching, "Your guard was down!"

And thus began an hour-long pillow fight, after which the insane couple collapsed and fell asleep in their den, not awaking until the next morning....

(Death and roses, love everlasting...)

Pegasus was trapped in the dark room once again, just like the other dreams. Once again he was alone, but this time, he could see a mirror several feet away from him. He walked closer to it so that he could look at his reflection.

But it wasn't his reflection that he saw. It was Cyndia. Cyndia stood at the other end of the mirror, peering at him from worlds away yet only through half an inch of glass.

Pegasus, stunned, put the palm of his right hand against the glass, trying to see if he could reach through to Cyndia. As he did so, Cyndia raised her left hand and pressed it against her side of the glass. When Pegasus moved his hand away, she moved hers away. And when Pegasus blinked in surprise, so did she.

Pegasus realized with a start that she must be his reflection. But when he looked down at himself, all he could see was the same old Pegasus.....red suit, white hair, one eye missing. But even as he was checking to see that he was the same person, so did Cyndia. It was a very odd experience.

Pegasus stepped back from the mirror for a second, and the second he did, his surroundings changed completely. Now, there was not just _one_ mirror. He was in a hallway lined from top to bottom with mirrors. And in each and every one, Cyndia stared back at him.

Pegasus looked to his left and right. The hallway seemed endless in both directions. But very far off to the right, he saw, was a spot on the wall where there was no glass. Instinctively, he ran towards it, and as he did, several different Cyndias did as well.

After a few minutes of running, Pegasus stopped, gasping for air. When he had finally caught his breath, he looked up at the spot on the wall where there was no glass. What he saw was beautiful calligraphy spelling out a phrase on a piece of canvas stretched onto the wall. The only problem was that he couldn't read it. It was written backwards.

Following his instincts once again, Pegasus turned around to look at one of the mirrors. He looked at the calligraphy written above Cyndia's head just as she looked at the calligraphy written above his. The message that Pegasus saw surprised him.

"_Memento mori_."

Pegasus had barely read this message when it began to melt away, dripping as through it was on a piece of paper left outside during a rainstorm. As soon as the old message disappeared, though, a new one took its place.

"_In pace requiescat."_

Pegasus had only just finished reading those words when he felt a sharp pain in his chest as though his heart would explode. And with that, he fell to the ground and the world was no more.

(Death and roses, love everlasting...)

"Pegasus?"

ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-ZZ

"Pegasus?"

ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-ZZ

"Pegasus."

ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-ZZ

"Pegasus!"

Pegasus felt a sharp jab to his shoulder, and he sat up abruptly, realizing that someone was trying to wake him up. He looked around frantically to find that he was in the middle of a movie theater, and that the end credits were rolling.

Cyndia, who was the one who had poked him, gave him a slightly disapproving look. "Fall asleep, did we?"

Pegasus yawned, then sat upright and attempted to look lively. "Mebbe."

He and Cyndia were now seventeen. They had been going out for the last two years, but they had kept their relationship a secret from their families and friends. This was supposed to be their two-year anniversary, but Pegasus had been unable to resist temptation and had fallen asleep in the middle of the 6:15 screening of 'Titanic'.

Cyndia, who was sweeping dry, stale popcorn off of her shoulders, noted: "You spilled your popcorn on me during the big romance scene."

"Which scene?"

"The big roman-......oh, never mind."

Pegasus looked sheepish as he noticed the extent to which the popcorn had gotten spilled. "Sorry 'bout that."

Cyndia, after having picked the final kernel out of her hair, turned to him and smiled reassuringly. "It's alright. It _was_ four hours long."

Pegasus rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and turned to her, asking, "Do you want to go get some ice cream? We've got 45 minutes before our curfews are up."

"Sure."

Several minutes later, after a trip to a Dairy Queen stand, the two sat on a bench near the park, debating the endless flavor war of rocky road vs. chocolate chip cookie dough.

Pegasus, who had finished his ice cream and was working on eating the cone, commented, "Cookie dough is all well and good, but sticking it in vanilla isn't exactly genius. There's a _million_ ice creams where someone took some sort of candy and stuck it into vanilla ice cream."

"But if you believe _that_, then rocky road's no different. I mean, that's just chocolate with marshmallows and nuts."

Pegasus would have replied, but as Cyndia began to take another lick of her ice cream, a big glob of chocolate chip cookie dough fell off of the cone and into Pegasus's lap. Cyndia giggled a little as Pegasus tried to wipe it off of his pants leg, getting the sticky substance all over his hands in the process.

Cyndia watched him, still giggling. "I guess that's karma. That has to be divine retribution for getting popcorn all over 't there have been a less _messy_ way of karmic retribution?"

"It could be worse. What if the ice cream had gotten into your _hair_?"

"If it had, I would've had a _lot_ of explaining to do when I got home."

Cyndia's giggling continued, and when it ended a smile remained as Pegasus finished the sticky task. When he had finished, stains of ice cream still remained on his fingers.

Cyndia posed a more serious question for Pegasus as he tried to wash his fingers off in a nearby water fountain. "So where did you tell your parents that you were going for four hours?"

"I said that I had just realized that a major report on the Battle of Waterloo was due next week, and I hadn't gotten any research done, so I needed to go to the library and wouldn't be back until late."

"I told my mom that I needed to go to a friend's house because her boyfriend had broken up with her and she was very upset."

Pegasus grinned a little as he wiped off the last bits of ice cream. "They'll believe anything, won't they?"

"Well, they'd probably rather remain ignorant. It's probably easier to ignore the evidence and just think your kid is sweet and innocent and wouldn't do aaaaaanything behind your back."

"That's true."

Cyndia took a lick of what was left of her ice cream, then sighed and stared off into space.

"I wish we didn't have to lie to them."

Pegasus looked at her and knew that she was feeling guilty. He could tell. Her eyes were like windows, and whenever he looked at them, he could see exactly what she was thinking. He could see if she was happy. Sad. Angry. Lonely. Afraid. The cool blue of her eyes were just like glass. He always thought of them as her Window Eyes.

He gave her a reassuring smile. "It isn't our fault."

"Then whose is it?"

"Theirs."

Cyndia looked unconvinced. Pegasus took her hand in his (the hand NOT holding the ice cream) and tried to console her. "Look, if it weren't for the fact that they keep squabbling, we wouldn't have to sneak around like this. If they'd just grow up and stop fighting with each other, then we wouldn't be in this situation."

Cyndia smiled sadly. "We're just some screwed up version of Romeo and Juliet, aren't we?"

Pegasus tightened the grip on her hand as he smiled warmly. "Hey, Romeo and Juliet had to kill themselves in the end. Things haven't gotten that bad for us."

Cyndia smiled a little. "I guess."

Even though she was smiling, Pegasus could tell that Cyndia was not reassured. He could tell by looking at her Window Eyes.

Pegasus tried to distract her from her guilt, at least for the moment. "How _did_ our families end up fighting so much anyway? I remember that they were friends when we were little...."

"Money. My dad and your dad kept betting on baseball, and my dad always won. Your dad got a little upset, and wouldn't pay back what he owed. Then everything span out of control."

Pegasus, despite himself, couldn't help but smile a little. "Your family always did tell us to root for the Yankees."

"Hey, my family's originally from New York. It's in our _blood_ to be Yankees fans."

Pegasus chuckled a little at that, and watched as Cyndia ate the last of her ice cream cone. He checked his watch to see how late it was. "I think we'd better get going. We have about 20 minutes before we need to be home."

Cyndia nodded. As she got up, Pegasus went back over to the nearby water fountain to get the remaining ice cream off of his hands, since they still felt a little sticky. As he was doing this, he heard a low whistle that sounded like it was coming from across the street. He turned his head to see a group of teenage guys walking down the sidewalk on the other end of the street. Most of them seemed to be talking amongst themselves, but one, the one who had probably done the whistling, made a phone-shape with his hand. He then moved his hand towards his ear, mouthing the words, "Call me." Your basic immature gesture made by a teenage guy on the street.

Pegasus now turned to Cyndia, and he could see through her Window Eyes that the poor soul across the street had no idea what he had just done. That guy had just set himself up for an explosion. Pegasus had been unfortunate enough on several occasions to see Cyndia's rage unleashed, although, thankfully, it had never been unleashed at him.

Cyndia's temper was building up, and in a few seconds, she would let out her fury. Until then, she had her hands clenched into fists while her teeth grinded against each other. One of her eyes began to twitch ever so slightly, and Pegasus felt it best that he intervene, or the guy across the street would probably die.

Pegasus grabbed Cyndia's shoulders to restrain her just as she began screaming wildly, trying her best to struggle her way out of Pegasus' grasp. "YOU GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE, YOU DIRTY LITTLE SHIT!!!" Pegasus, in a desperate attempt to restrain her, held her arms behind her back to keep her from maiming the guy.

The guy on the other side of the street, obviously startled, looked around him quickly to check that her rage was, in fact, aimed at him and not someone nearby. Cyndia quickly picked up on this and started screaming, "I'M LOOKING AT YOU, YES, YOU!!!!! YOU SONUVABITCH!!!"

By this time, the guy's friends had caught on to what was happening, and seemed to be trying to usher their friend down the street as quickly as possible. Cyndia continued to shriek. "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING?!!!! DON'T YOU FUCKING WALK AWAY FROM ME!!!!"

With that, the group of guys made their way quickly down the street and made their way around a street corner. Pegasus waited a few seconds until Cyndia seemed to have calmed down somewhat, and then released her.

Cyndia turned to Pegasus, slightly miffed. "Why'd you stop me?"

"Because I don't want to have to testify against you in court."

Cyndia sat down and sighed. "He was being an asshole."

"Maybe, but I'm not sure that that's an offense worthy of the death penalty."

"Is my temper _really_ that out of control?

"It is. Really. Don't you remember Alice?"

Cyndia smiled a little. "Yeah, I remember. That was too bad, what happened to her."

Pegasus remembered Alice well. He had been there when she had broken. She was a porcelain doll that Cyndia had gotten when she was three, and whom Cyndia had treasured ever since. Throughout her childhood, Alice had been Cyndia's pride and joy. She had always had a special place on Cyndia's bookshelf, where she would stare blankly at any and all passers-by.

Unfortunately for Alice, Cyndia flew into a rage one day when she was eleven. In her temper, Cyndia kicked the wall where her bookshelf was, and Alice, who had been sitting too close to the edge of the shelf, toppled onto the hardwood floor face-first.

It had been a grotesque sight for the eleven year-old Pegasus. There on the ground lay the shattered pieces of something Cyndia loved dearly, as though it were a real person instead of a plaything. Alice's face had split into tiny little fragments, and her limbs were twisted horribly. Tiny powdered bits of porcelain surrounded the doll fragments. It was rather strange seeing one of Alice's eyes half-closed on her face, while another one lay half-open several inches away. Cyndia had wept terribly. Alice had been like a close family member to her. Even though Alice was glued together soon afterward, it always stuck out in Pegasus's memory, because it was the closest thing to death that he would see until he was seventeen.

(Death and roses, love everlasting...)

That night, Pegasus dreamt once again of the dark room, the one with no walls or ceiling. This time, though he was not alone. He sat in audience of faceless people, each of whom stared at a small stage that seemed to be set up for a magic show.

In a puff of smoke, the man with the cigar appeared on stage, dressed in a magician's cloak and top hat. He waved around a wand, and with another puff of smoke, Cyndia appeared next to him, dressed as though she were his assistant.

The man with the cigar then stood on a small box, addressing the crowd and waving his arms about for dramatic effect. "For tonight's show, my lovely assistant and I," he gestured towards Cyndia and himself, "will perform a disappearing act! Prepare to be amazed, my friends..." The man cast a yellow-toothed grin directly at Pegasus. "Prepare to be amazed."

The man waved his wand, and a human-sized box appeared on the stage, between him and Cyndia. The fact that the box was shaped like a coffin was not lost on Pegasus. The man escorted Cyndia into the box, and as he shut the door on her, she waved at the audience coyly.

The man stepped away from the box, twirled his wand a few times, then pointed it directly at the box. With a puff of smoke, the box's door opened all on its own, and revealed.......

......a gravestone.

Once again, the man looked at Pegasus with the yellow-toothed grin. He waved his wand, and with another puff of smoke, the box's door closed and opened again, revealing an IV.

The man repeated these motions, and the door closed and opened to reveal an IV.

One more time, the man waved his wand, and with yet another puff of smoke, the box's door closed, then opened to reveal Cyndia, who waved to the audience. As the man made his way over to the box to guide Cyndia out, she teasingly stole his wand, and then pushed him into the box, shutting him inside. The faceless audience laughed.

Cyndia tapped the box with the wand one, two, three times. She waved the wands deftly, then tapped the box one more time. The smoke that ensued enveloped both her and the box. When the smoke cleared, the man with the cigar stood outside the box, while the box's door lay wide open, revealing a bouquet of flowers inside.

The flowers were roses.

The faceless audience went wild, applauding, whistling, and cheering for the man with the cigar. The man took several bows, heeding the cries for an encore by continuing to puff away at his cigar.

"WAIT!"

The audience stopped applauding and the man with the cigar stopped bowing. All of them turned to looks at Pegasus, who had stood up and was calling out to the man with the cigar.

The man with the cigar, unfazed, stood upright and puffed a smoke ring in Pegasus's general direction. "What is it, Mr. Crawford?"

Pegasus tried his best to ignore the blank stares of the faceless audience. "Where is Cyndia? Where did she go?"

The man with the cigar grinned. "She disappeared. Weren't you watching?"

"She couldn't have _disappeared._ She must have gone somewhere. Where is she?"

"Mr. Crawford, she disappeared, just like I told you."

"But that's IMPOSSIBLE!"

The man with the cigar laughed, as did the faceless members of the audience. "Mr. Crawford, _nothing_ is impossible while I'm around. I think you're just going to have to face the fact that this little magic show of mine didn't have the happy ending that you had wanted."

Pegasus remained stern. "Where. Is. Cyndia?"

The man with the cigar sighed as he puffed another smoke ring. "If you really want to find her, look in the box over there. If she's really gone somewhere, and didn't disappear, like I said, then you should be able to find a trapdoor or something that would lead to her location."

Pegasus seemed skeptical of the man, but he still went onto the stage and made his way over to the box. He opened the door cautiously and peered inside, but as he did so, the man with the cigar crept over and pushed him inside the box, shutting the door behind him. And so, Pegasus disappeared......

The dream ended quickly, as Pegasus was abruptly awoken by someone thwacking him on the head with a pillow.


	4. Pollen

CPegasus: Why, thank you! BTW, I haven't gotten to read your newest chapters yet, but I have them copy/pasted onto Microsoft Word, so don't worry, I will read them.

BlackieChuu: I'm sorry. but....rocky road wins. It's not even a question. Chocolate chip cookie dough is good too, but....it just can't COMPARE.

Myotismon13: Hmm, I've never seen Gaiman, so I can't say that it affected the story. But now I wanna see it.........I must get my hands on it! Kukukuku. plots, schemes, cackles

"Nature's first green is gold

It's hardest hue to hold

Her early leaf's a flower

But only so an hour

And leaf subsides to leaf

So Eden sank to grief

As dawn goes down to day

Nothing gold can stay"

-"Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost

Death and Roses

Pegasus grunted as he felt a pillow weakly hit his skull repeatedly. Pegasus, in an attempt to return to what was once a peaceful slumber, pulled his own pillow over his head and calculated just how early in the morning was too early for this sort of thing. His tormenter, undeterred, just began to hit his back with the pillow.

"Daaaaaaaaaddyyyyyyyyy, wake uuuuuuuuup!"

Pegasus groaned and sunk himself deeper into the mattress. Faintly, he could hear a similarly childlike voice trying to wake up mooooooommyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

Pegasus continued to try to ignore the little person who was attacking him, and it was about then that God smiled on him by causing one of the childlike voices to screech, "Let's go watch Pokemon!" And with that, they were gone.

Pegasus, after hearing small footfalls going in the opposite direction, turned over to the person lying next to him. "How _exactly_ do they manage to wake up this early on a _Saturday_?"

Cyndia, still half-asleep, managed to yawn, "Got me." And with that, the two turned over and tried to go back to sleep.

Unfortunately for their slumber, the two mini-sized villains returned while their show was on its first commercial break, and they began their systematic torture once more. Only this time, they had managed to break into a bag of Oreos and were now supplied with more energy than most nuclear power plants.

After about five minutes of relentless persecution, the two parents managed to rise from their bed and confront their tormentors. Both were little girls. Whoever said they were cute and innocent has never seen 'The Ring'.

One was approximately four to five years old, with curly brown hair reaching down to her shoulders. She wore a frilly pink shirt and a very loose denim skirt that went down to her knees, and she had two barrettes holding her hair back. The other little girl, who appeared to be about three years old, had long, wavy black hair running down her back, and she wore a cute blue sundress. Although they did not immediately appear to look like either of their parents, you could still see the family resemblance shine through. The older of the girls had red eyes, like her dad, while the younger one had Cyndia's blue eyes. Both of them seemed to have Cyndia's smile, but when they giggled, it was Pegasus's laughter that emerged.

The younger of the girls stood next to Cyndia, wrapping one tiny arm around her legs in order to cling tightly to her mother. The older one, obviously the leader of the two, skipped cheerfully over to Pegasus, sugar-coating her voice by sweetly saying, "Good morning!"

Pegasus, who, as we all know by now, is not much of a morning person, managed to say something along the lines of: "Lily, what are you doing up this early?"

Lily, the older of the sisters, frowned slightly. "It's ten in the morning, Daddy!"

Pegasus glanced at an alarm clock near his bed and saw that it was, indeed, ten o'clock. More specifically, 10:12 AM. But that didn't make him any happier about waking up.

Cyndia, who had already managed to recover from her awakening, crouched down to her daughter's eye level and said, "Lily, would you do me a favor and get Daddy a coffee mug? I think he just needs to pour himself some coffee so he'll wake up."

"Okay, Mommy!"

Cyndia then turned his attention to the little girl clinging to her legs. "How 'bout you, Iris? Do you wanna go help your sister?"

Iris, the younger of the two, did not reply, but simply nodded and followed her older sister down a set of stairs. When they had safely disappeared, Cyndia turned to say something to her husband, only to find that he had collapsed on the mattress and was falling back asleep.

Cyndia, torn between the urge to laugh and the urge to nag, grabbed Pegasus's feet and began dragging him off the mattress. She managed to get him about three feet from where he had started before he squirmed away. Frustrated, Cyndia did what any mature, rational person does when their spouse refuses to awaken.

She simply hit him over the head with a handy pillow.

Hard.

However, this course of action seemed not to work, as Pegasus just kept on sleeping. Cyndia sighed, then sat down on the mattress next to him, preparing to shake him awake. However, this course of action was interrupted suddenly, when she was hit on the head herself with Pegasus's own pillow. Surprised, she fell off the mattress and got a quick glimpse of her husband grinning.

"Hit me with a pillow wouldja?"

Cyndia smirked. "Yes, yes I would." With that she took her own pillow, and began to aim for Pegasus's shoulder, but Pegasus's pillow hit her torso split seconds before hand. Undaunted, she hit him a good few times before he head-butted her and she fell onto the mattress, thwacking him wildly with her pillow. Pegasus, laughing all the while, guarded himself with his left arm while using his right arm to push Cyndia away, using his pillow as a sort of shield. However, Pegasus soon fell off the mattress, and Cyndia, seizing this opportunity, began to thwack him wildly with her pillow as he lay on the floor, laughing all the while.

However, this little attack maneuver was cut short as she looked up and saw two slightly bewildered, slightly bemused children standing in their doorway, each one holding a coffee mug.

Cyndia, turning slightly red from embarrassment, put her and Pegasus's pillow back at their respective places at the head of the bed while Pegasus looked up to see what was going on. Spotting his two daughters, he smiled, slightly amused at the fact that his children had caught him in the midst of full-on pillow fight. "Good morning, girls."

Lily, acting as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened, cheerfully trotted up to Pegasus and held out the coffee mug in her hand. "Here you go, Daddy!"

"Thank you, sweetie."

"And Iris got one for Mommy, too!"

Iris, responding to what Lily had said, walked quietly up to Cyndia and held out the mug in her hand. Cyndia took the cup in her hands and smiled warmly at her. "Thank you, Iris. That was sweet of you."

Lily, rocking on the balls of her feet, obviously pleased with herself, asked innocently, "Are we going out anywhere today, since it's a Saturday?"

Cyndia considered this. "Hmm.....maybe, if you and Iris are good this morning."

"We'll be good! Honest!"

"Alright, then. Why don't you two go back downstairs? Your show's probably on again."

Not another word needed to be said as the two girls scampered downstairs as fast as their little legs could carry them.

Pegasus, after watching his two daughters leave, turned to look out the window as Cyndia went into the adjacent bathroom to brush her teeth. The sun had risen hours ago, but was only beginning to peek over all of the other houses nearby. But, then again, what could you expect when you lived in the middle of San Francisco?

Pegasus turned away and surveyed the room. After that little pillow-fight that had ensued, the sheets and blankets were strewn all over the place, and, if he was not mistaken, the mattress seemed a little off-kilter. Even the painting on the opposite wall seemed crooked.

Pegasus chuckled and walked across the room to realign the painting. He remembered this one. This was one of his best works. It was of Lily when she was only a few days old, and had just been brought home from the hospital. It was also one of Pegasus' more popular paintings. Several dozen copies had been sold in San Francisco alone. But Pegasus supposed it had something to do with the fact that he was one of the more popular painters in the city.

Pegasus smiled a little. He'd been so worried when he'd decided to take up fine art. His parents hadn't been pleased, of course, but eventually they came around. And Cyndia had been right beside him all the way. And, luckily for him, it had all worked out. He lived in a nice house in San Francisco, and didn't have to worry too much in the way of finances. Pegasus had been under the impression that he'd have to live out of a shack to be an artist in any big city.

Cyndia reentered from the bathroom, and, upon seeing Pegasus, hugged him from behind. "So....the girls seem to want to go out somewhere. What do you think?"

"Well, why not? It's the weekend, and the weather is gorgeous."

"Alright, but where do you think we should go? We could go to the park, or we could go to one of those art exhibits they have going on downtown....."

Pegasus thought for a moment, and as he did so, it was as though a certain Celtic man with a fondness for cigars was grinning toothily while pulling the strings behind some odd scheme. Because, at that moment, Pegasus came up with an idea that, if he had remembered what reality had been like originally, would have struck him as déjà vu.

"Actually, there's a nice farmer's market I've heard about that we could go check out..."

(Death and roses, love everlasting...)

Three hours later, the Crawford family was walking through said farmer's market happily. Lily was fascinated with the sights around her, making loud exclamations every now and then. Cyndia held Iris's hand, smiling down at her and talking to her younger daughter about the sights they saw. Iris, true to form, clung tightly to Cyndia and only responded by nodding or shaking her head.

Pegasus, meanwhile, was lost in thought. As he walked throughout the market with his family, he kept having the oddest feeling that he'd been there before, as though he'd seen these sights once before but couldn't quite place when he had. It was an odd sensation, and he did his best to ignore it.

"Look, Mama, paintings!"

Sure enough, Lily had spotted a farmer's booth selling seascapes to passers-by for five dollars or less. Pegasus, intrigued, went up to the man running the booth and asked him if he had painted these works himself. When he answered yes, the two got into a long conversation about techniques and subjects matter for paintings as Cyndia, Lily, and Iris continued to walk along.

Several minutes later, Pegasus left that particular booth with two seascapes under his arm. As he scanned the farmer's market for the rest of his family, he spotted them buying balloon animals several booths away.

He hurried over to them just as Lily received a balloon shaped like a cat. Iris, still clinging to Cyndia, held in her hand the string to a balloon shaped like a caterpillar.

Pegasus made his way over to his family as the man handing out the balloons handed the cat to Lily. Lily giggled in delight and tugged on the string to make her balloon cat dance.

Pegasus was struck with shock once again as the man with the balloons looked up at him and grinned. The man was dressed in a worn flannel shirt, smoking a cigar. He seemed to be in his late fifties or early sixties, and his well-worn hands spoke of someone who had many stories to tell but not many people to tell them to. He carried a small pouch in his left hand, while his right hand held a small basket, filled with smooth, polished stones. And when he spoke, his voice, tinged with a Dublin accent, seemed eerily familiar to Pegasus.

"I take it yer the father 'a these little ladies."

Pegasus nodded numbly as Lily turned to him, squealing, "Look! I got a cat balloon!"

Pegasus smiled at her. "Yes, I see."

Cyndia rummaged through her purse, then produced two dollars and handed them to the man with the cigar. As he took the money, he tipped his hat to her. " 'Ave a good day, all of yeh."

"You too."

The family wandered further away in the direction of a booth selling baked goods. All the while, Pegasus felt odd. Where had he seen that man before? A chance meeting? No, no, he would never have remembered something so brief. A business associate? No, not if he was selling balloons on the street. But then WHERE?

Pegasus suddenly remembered something that he couldn't place. He remembered screaming.....horrified wailing that was part of a memory that had been replaced.

Cyndia had died.

Pegasus practically jumped when Cyndia turned to him, saying, "Where do you want to go next?" Pegasus, startled, began to stammer an answer when he realized that he needed to go back. He needed to talk to that man with the cigar.

"Cyndia, you and the girls can go on without me. I think I left something back at one of the booths."

"Alright, but don't take too long."

Pegasus nodded, then turned and ran in the direction of the man with the cigar. He could remember it all now. The funeral. The wishing stones. Cyndia in a wheelchair. Disappearing at a magic show. Roses. So many roses.......

He remembered everything now.

When he finally reached the man with the cigar, he crouched for a minute to catch his breath as the man with the cigar watched him calmly.

"So I see ye've returned, eh, Mr. Crawford?"

Pegasus, hearing him say that, knew now that this was no coincidence. The man had granted his wish, just like he'd said he would.

Pegasus looked up at the man, trying to speak, but he found that words just would not come out. He stammered for a bit while the man with the cigar watched him calmly, as though he knew full well everything that Pegasus wanted to say.

Finally, Pegasus decided that he really wasn't able to express his gratitude weel with words, so he pulled out his wallet and held out approximately one hundred dollars. "Here. Take it."

"What fer?"

"The wish! You granted my wish!"

"What're y'talkin' about?"

"The wish I made! You told me to wish on one of those stones in your basket, and I did, and my wish came true, and...." Pegasus broke off his sentence, realizing how childish he would sound to anyone listening. But it _had _happened. It _had._ It wasn't childish at all....was it?

The man with the cigar smiled knowingly, almost patronizingly, saying, "Are y'sure y'know what yer sayin'?"

Pegasus hesitated. Maybe he was just being delusional.....ugh, he must have been hallucinating or something........yes, that was it. He'd better come around, or......

"After all, yer wish ain't even granted yet, and yer actin' so grateful an' all. It's a little embarassin'."

Wait.......WHAT?

Pegasus began stammering. "I....I don't understand."

"Well, yer wish hasn't been granted yet, or at least, not completely."

"Yes, it has! I wished that you'd bring Cyndia back, and you d-..."

"That's not what you wished for."

Pegasus blinked, not comprehending. "What?"

"I said that that wasn't yer wish."

Pegasus didn't understand. He began to protest. "Of course I did! What else could I want more than that?"

The man with the cigar smiled a little, and Pegasus almost thought he could detect a hint of sincere sadness behind that smile. "You, my friend, have a problem with wording."

Pegasus stared at him blankly. Wording? What about it? What was this man talking about? Maybe he was crazy. Maybe they BOTH were. None of this seemed to make any sense to Pegasus.

The man sighed. "Have y'ever heard of the monkey's paw story?"

Pegasus shook his head dumbly.

"I think y'ought t'read it. It might help y'understand what I mean."

Pegasus nodded a little, still confused. He suddenly realized that the money that he had offered the man was still in his hand, and he began putting it away. The man smiled consolingly.

"Come back t'me once yer wish is really granted."

And with that, the man seemed to disappear in front of Pegasus's very eyes, and Pegasus stared dazedly at thin air.


	5. Petals

Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh, the Scarlet Pimpernel, or the 'Mistress Mary' songs used in this chapter. Those are from the musical version of 'The Secret Garden'. Oh, and I don't own the idea of the clock running backwards. That was basically inspired by my seventh grade teacher's clock.

Myotismon13: You're close. Very, very close. But not quite. Remember, Pegasus also wished that things had turned out differently. I can't give anything else away, so you'll just have to keep reading .-

Flowering Wolfsbane: Well, it's not gonna be _exactly_ like the monkey's paw story. But it's similar in that the people in both stories have to be careful what they wish for.

CPegasus: Hey, the old man isn't _completely_ evil. He's just doing his job, like the rest of us.

Death and Roses

"No -- stay.  
I don't care what you've said or done.  
Don't go away.  
Not now when life has just begun...

She's gone,  
this vision who was not quite real.  
I must move on,   
despite the pain. The pain will heal.  
Oh Lord,  
how could you let me love like this?  
No one dies upon a kiss,  
and only fools believe in bliss...

God, no!  
I'm broken but I'm still alive.  
And slowly,  
I will feel my soul revive.  
With time,   
I'll find a way to right this wrong --  
if it takes my whole life long

Lord, I'll fight my battles all alone,  
but make me strong."

-"Prayer" from the musical "The Scarlet Pimpernel"

Pegasus stared out into the thin air for what seemed an eternity. His mind tried to process everything that he had heard, and yet he couldn't. He felt eerily numb.

Was that a dream? Was any of that conversation actually real? Or had Pegasus gone insane?

"Pegasus?"

Pegasus jumped about a full foot in the air when Cyndia's voice broke him out of his daze. He spun around to find her standing there, looking at him quizzically.

"Did you find whatever it was that you were looking for?"

Pegasus was confused for a second, until he realized that he had told Cyndia that he had gone looking for something when he went to visit the man with the cigar.

"Oh, um, yeah. I accidentally dropped my wallet over here."

"You got it back?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, good. The girls are riding a carousel they've got set up here, so I figured I'd come find you in the meanwhile."

Pegasus nodded numbly, as Cyndia led him over to the carousel where the girls where riding their plastic horses happily. As they rode around in circles, Pegasus slowly forgot the memory of seeing the man with the cigar. Instead, it was replaced with a memory of searching for a missing wallet, which seemed odd, since Pegasus didn't usually keep a wallet, preferring to keep his money in his pants pockets.

Slowly, he forgot that anything unusual had happened, and he felt better.

When Lily and Iris dismounted their horses, Cyndia went over to them, and Pegasus let his mind drift aimlessly. He suddenly felt very tired...

His thoughts became murky, as though a dense fog had settled over his mind, and he completely forgot where he was and what he was doing. He didn't hear or see anything, and he began to dream...

(Death and roses, love everlasting...)

Pegasus had returned to his dreamland, the dark room with no walls or ceiling or floor. It was becoming familiar now, inevitable...a common occurrence in his dreamworld.

A soft, pale light lit the center of the room, and there sat Cyndia, sitting cross-legged on the ground, with Iris and Lily sitting in her lap. Each of the two girls rested their head on Cyndia's shoulders as Cyndia sang a soft little lullaby. As she sang, Pegasus could barely make out the words as he stood there, watching them.

"Mistress Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?  
'Not so well,' she said  
'See, the lily's dead.'  
Pull it up, and out you go."

And with that, Pegasus's eldest daughter vanished quietly into thin air. Astonished, he saw that there was no longer two little girls sitting on Cyndia's lap, but one little girl and a dead lily flower. Its once-white petals were withered and brown, and its leaves curled into each other, dry and fragile.

Cyndia and Iris didn't seem to notice that Lily was missing, and Cyndia continued to sing as though nothing had happened, and the dead lily had been there all along. Iris continued listening to the lullaby quietly, eyelids drooping as though she were about to fall asleep in Cyndia's arms.

"Mistress Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?  
'Oh, it's dry,' she wailed  
'See, the iris failed.'  
Dig it up, and out you go."

And with that, Iris suffered the same fate as her sister, slowly disappearing in front of her parents' eyes. The dead lily was joined by a dead iris, its petals rotting away into sickly colors, and its leaves eaten away by unseen insects. Cyndia, although she seemed not to notice Iris's disappearance, had a sad look upon her face as she continued to sing, holding the two dead flowers in front of her.

"Mistress Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?  
'Oh, it's hot,' she cried  
'See, my rose has died.'  
Dig it up, and out you go."

And with that, the two flowers fell from Cyndia's vanishing hands. They were soon joined by a third flower, a black, withered rose. The dead bouquet lay there quietly as Pegasus stared at them, bewildered and confused.

(Death and roses, lover everlasting...)

Pegasus woke up suddenly as he heard an impatient knocking on his bedroom. He sat up straight, breathing heavily from the shock of a nightmare that he couldn't quite remember. He managed to calm himself down enough to call out, "Come in."

His door opened quietly, and in stepped a girl of about seventeen years old, with a pale face and long, raven-black hair. Pegasus immediately recognized her.

"Hello, Estella."

"Morning, sleepy brother. Mom and Dad sent me to wake you up, it's time for breakfast."

Pegasus glanced at his alarm clock, which read 8:02 AM. Pegasus turned to Estella and nodded, saying, "I'll be down there in a second."

As Estella made her way downstairs, Pegasus began to feel more awake and calm. He stood up and looked in the mirror, getting a full view of the massive amount of bed head he had sitting on his scalp. As he attempted to brush his hair into a recognizable shape, he glanced around his room via the mirror.

There were Yankees posters hanging all over his room, along with one giant sign proclaiming the schedule for the subway series between the Yankees and Mets in the World Series a few years ago. There were other things, too. There was a poster for 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' that Cyndia had absolutely _insisted_ that he hang up in his room. There was also a clock up on his wall that ran backwards (no one knew why) that had been from one of Pegasus's old teachers.

And yet, Pegasus felt somewhat out of place. This had been his room for all seventeen years of his life, but he suddenly felt as though this room were strange and unfamiliar. It was an odd feeling...In his mind, Pegasus tried to reassure himself. Of course this was his room. Some of the older Yankees posters were from when he and his family had lived in New York. The rest were collectibles that he had bought over the years. The 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' poster....who else would want him to hang that up other than Cyndia? Everyone _knew_ what a horror movie fanatic she was.

Yes, it all made sense. He was just feeling odd today, that was all....he'd have to ignore it.......

(Death and roses, love everlasting....)

Somewhere, an Irish man puffed happily on a cigar, and his accented voice said softly:

"Th'final stage is set, an' the actors are in place. Now, all th'audience need do is watch the play unfold for th'finale..."

"Through the mist, your lover is beckoning  
Comes that moment of reckoning  
Faces change,  
Even smiles grow strange,

And we all have so many faces  
The real self often erases  
Enticing lies flicker through our eyes

Feel the terror draw ever nearer  
The more you stare in the mirror  
But hold your own, face the wind alone"

-"The Riddle" from the musical "The Scarlet Pimpernel"


End file.
